Theresa may

While the rest of SW1 was distracted this afternoon by the findings of the Hamilton report, Mr S tuned in to see Theresa May appear before the National Security Strategy Committee. The former PM remains the master of the withering putdown, as poor Gavin Williamson will have discovered to his cost on watching the meeting back.  Former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett inquired as to how Williamson's alleged leaking (and subsequent sacking) impacted meetings of the National Security Council and May did not hold back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7hybp218Js May replied: 'I think we then got back into the rhythm of people recognising that they could speak as freely as they had done previously.

Theresa May is not the easiest person to speak to in Westminster. She is reluctant to get drawn into a conversation unless she knows what the outcome of it is going to be. But it is still surprising to find the lengths that her colleagues had to go to, to get an understanding of what she wanted to do as Prime Minister. In an interview with Britain in a Changing Europe, Gavin Barwell recalls going to see her after the 2017 election – which had seen May lose her majority and Barwell his seat. In an attempt to reset her premiership, May had invited him to be her chief of staff. So, he travelled to her constituency home to see her. But the talk hardly flowed, he says: You can imagine, knowing Theresa, that was not an easy conversation to have initially.

You won't be surprised to learn that Philip Hammond was no big fan of Brexit. But Mr S was still somewhat taken aback by just how little the former chancellor made of Theresa May's 'Brexit means Brexit' strategy: 'My assessment of Theresa May’s Prime Ministership, in terms of Brexit, is that she dug a 20-foot-deep hole in October 2016 in making that speech' Hammond was, of course, referring to the speech May made to Tory party conference in her first year as prime minister. But Hammond's interview, released this week by UK in a changing Europe, has opened up something of a riddle.

During the debate over Boris Johnson's Brexit agreement in the House of Commons today, Theresa May chastised the Labour leader over his criticism of both her deal and the current deal.  Appearing to be the only MP in the chamber wearing a mask while waiting to speak, the former Prime Minister heard Starmer wish for a better Brexit agreement, while accepting that he will whip his MPs to vote for Boris’s ‘thin deal’. These words stirred something within May as she thought back to the numerous painful meaningful Brexit votes under her watch. Back then, Starmer was shadow Brexit secretary and played a key role in moving the official Labour position to backing a second referendum rather than May's deal.

This country will end the Brexit transition period with a zero tariff, zero quota deal with the EU. Four and a half years after the Brexit vote, the issue that has so convulsed British politics is settled. We are still awaiting the text of the deal. But from what both sides have said it is clear that this is a pretty full fat Brexit: Britain leaves the single market and the customs union and there’ll be no dynamic alignment with EU rules in the future. On the three key tests of money, borders and laws – it looks like the deal passes The two sides will be able to put tariffs on each other if they feel that they have raised their standards and the others refusal to follow suit puts them at a trading disadvantage.

It can be a hard task adjusting to life on the backbenches after leaving front-line politics. One minute you’re running the country, the next you’re being batted away by busy ministers. Former Prime Minister Theresa May appeared to learn that lesson this afternoon in the Commons, when submitting a question on Brexit to Michael Gove. May was quizzing the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on security arrangements after Britain leaves the EU and wanted to make sure the UK is still able to access European police databases in the event of no deal. But the former PM appeared less than pleased with Gove’s response, when he suggested that we could police our borders more effectively outside of the EU. A glowering May could even be spotted mouthing ‘What?

At the Republican National Convention last month, Donald Trump was repeatedly described as the ‘most pro-life President ever’. According to some rather sensational leaked official notes in Sunday’s Daily Telegraph, however, Trump has said he regards abortion as ‘such a tough issue’. Addressing the then British prime minister Theresa May, who is childless, Trump said in January 2017: ‘Imagine some animal with tattoos raping your daughter, and then she gets pregnant.’ Aside from the staggering crassness of this remark to a woman who is on the record about her inability to have children, it also suggests that Trump is not as pro-life as many in his party would have voters believe.

A little over a year ago, at the nadir of the May administration’s excruciating bungling of Brexit, the Daily Telegraph landed a dynamite exclusive. The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, and Business Secretary Greg Clark had hosted a confidential conference call for corporate bosses in which they said the threat of a no-deal Brexit was effectively off the table. And the Telegraph had obtained a tape recording of the whole thing. Behind the backs of the British people, the well-upholstered felines of big business were being told that a huge Commons defeat for May’s withdrawal agreement (it had just lost by 230 votes) did not mean that Brexit would go ahead on WTO terms at the end of March.

Here in a few numbers is the measure of the catastrophic mess we are in; caused by failing to resolve how, when and whether we are leaving the EU some 1,174 days after British people voted for Brexit. MPs are being locked out of the Commons chamber for 34 days and nights, because the prime minister does not trust them not to thwart his plans to extract the UK from the EU 'do or die' on October 31. That is an insult to our parliamentary democracy, some would say. Former Prime Minister Theresa May has rewarded 31 of her officials, fellow ministers and MPs. Gongs rank from MBEs to peerages. Almost all have been given to those implicated in various ways in May's failure to achieve the one task she had - to execute the referendum result.